1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a surface decorated article and a decoration method thereof by applying coating for decoration to the surface of a substrate comprising, for example, plastic, metal, wood, glass and ceramics, thereby giving aesthetic appearance.
2. Statement of the Prior Art
Paint is generally applied mainly with an aim of obtaining protection effects such as improvements of rust prevention, corrosion inhibition and weather proofness, effects of enhancing the physical property and functionality such as improvement of the surface hardness and the heat resistance or provision of electric insulation or electroconductivity, and a decorative effect for giving an aesthetic appearance by the color or texture of a coating membrane of a paint. In particular, it is one of most important decorative methods for metal or wooden articles to provide a desired color or texture on the surface.
On the other hand, in plastic articles capable of pigmenting molding materials per se to a desired color or providing a texture such as unevennesses by a molding die, coating is not always indispensable and decorative coating is not applied as a surface finishing required in metal or wooden articles (provision of aesthetic appearance) but applied mainly as a substitute for printing of patterns or marks.
However, application use of plastic articles has been extended remarkably in recent years and plastic molding products capable of decreasing weight and cost due to their good moldability have been used generally for interior and exterior parts of automobiles as well as for domestic electric articles or electronic equipment such as office automation equipment and, accompanying therewith, demand for coating plastic articles with an aim of obtaining the decorative effect of providing aesthetic appearance has been increased remarkably.
Particularly, for automobile interior parts, it has been demanded for decorative coating with high quality feeling and having both good quality of appearance that creates comfortable residential space in a car interior and giving a unique feature that can satisfy users"" individual tastes.
However, it is not easy by the coating to apply unique decoration having high quality feeling, since the type and the number of colors of paints available are limited and the coating method is also restricted, so that a complicated design by combination of a multiplicity of colors or motifs can not be constituted as in the case of printing.
Particularly, in a spray coating of a paint by a coating machine such as a spray gun, it is impossible to provide a spatial feeling by weaving a coating using a brush or a roll as in stipple coating and variation of textures in the coating is limited.
Further, it is possible for ceilings and walls of buildings to apply stipple coating or sand blast coating of blowing a cement resin paint incorporated with coarse powdery limestone or silicic stone by a mortar gun of 3 to 5 mm bore diameter thereby providing an uneven pattern. However, such coating is not applicable to the surface finishing of industrial articles such as automobiles, domestic electronics articles or electronic equipment, since the texture of the coating is coarse.
In the coating used for surface finishing of industrial articles, there have been known a hammer tone coating of blowing a paint blended with a silicone resin by a spray gun to develop a hammer-struck spatial pattern in a planar state, cracking coating of blowing cracking enamel to an intercoat layer to cause cracks in the coating, or reticulation coating causing fine wrinkles on the surface of a coating. However, reticulation coating has been used long since for the surface finishing of optical instruments such as microscopes and cameras or metal lockers, and the hammer tone coating is common as the surface finishing of machine tools, so that they lack in uniqueness and also in high quality feeling.
In addition, there have been also known metallic coating of providing metallic gloss with the coating of a metallic paint using flaky glitter material such as an aluminum powder or aluminum flake as a pigment, and pearlescent coating of providing pearlescent or iridescent gloss by a coating of a pearlescent pigment using flaky glitter material as a pigment. However, a monotonous texture of merely giving metallic gloss or pearlescent gloss uniformly on the entire coating is common and lacks in uniqueness, so that they can not always be said to provide a high quality feeling but rather deteriorate the high quality feeling depending on the industrial articles.
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide a color or texture which is unique and of high quality feeling and optimal also to the surface finishing of industrial articles by using a metallic paint using flaky glitter material as a pigment or a glitter paint such as a pearlescent pigment, by a method different from the conventional coating.
The foregoing object of the present invention is attained by a surface decorated article in which a surface is entirely or partially decorated with a coating of a glitter paint using a flaky glitter material as a pigment, wherein paint particles at a low viscosity with a relatively high solvent dilution ratio formed by coarsely particulating a glitter paint and paint particles at a high viscosity with a relatively low solvent dilution ratio formed by coarsely particulating a glitter paint are coated in a state mixed with each other, to form a coating of a glitter paint comprising areas in which the paint particles at a low viscosity are dried to solidify and areas in which the paint particles at a high viscosity are dried to solidify are mixed together in a spotwise pattern.
According to the present invention, in the process that the paint particles at a low viscosity and the paint particles at a high viscosity coated on the surface of a surface decorated article are dried to solidify by evaporation of the solvent, paint particles at a low viscosity with the high solvent dilution ratio show large volume shrinkage upon evaporation of the solvent and, therefore, flaky glitter material contained in the paint particles flow so as to be in parallel with the coated surface and aligned in this direction, so that the areas in which the paint particles at the low viscosity are dried to solidify show large hiding power and high light reflectance on the coating surface by the flaky glitter material.
On the other hand, since the paint particles at the high viscosity with the low solvent dilution ratio show small volume shrinkage upon evaporation of the solvent and, therefore, the flaky glitter material flows less by the effect of the volume shrinkage and not much flaky glitter material is aligned in parallel with the coating surface, so that the areas in which the coated particles at the high viscosity are died to solidify show small hiding power and low light reflectance on the coating surface compared with the areas in which the paint particles at the low viscosity are dried to solidify.
Accordingly, the coating of the glitter paint, having areas in which the paint particles at the low viscosity are dried to solidify and areas in which the paint particles at the high viscosity are dried to solidify are mixed together in a spotwise pattern, develops a unique spotwise pattern having spot areas emitting brilliant gloss by the reflection of light and spot areas emitting dark gloss mixed with each other. The degree of gloss in the spot areas change subtly depending on the view angle, and an uneven feeling in appearance is given in a planar state being coupled with the change and the bright/dark contrast, to provide the surface decorated article with appearance of deep and high quality feeling.